New Mexico Tech offers over 30 bachelor of science degrees in technology, the sciences, engineering, management, and technical communication, as well as graduate degrees at the masters and doctoral levels.[2] According to Newsweek in 2010, New Mexico Tech was considered one of the best small science and engineering schools in North America.[2][3] A National Science Foundation study of Baccalaureate Origins of S&E Doctorate Recipients in the United States ranked New Mexico Tech as 15th in the nation, as well as the number-one ranked public institution.[4]

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New Mexico Tech is a relatively small (approximately 2,100 students as of 2012) research- and teaching-oriented university focused on science and engineering. The institution was founded by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature in the year 1889 as the New Mexico School of Mines to both boost the territorial economy and teach mining specialties on the college level. During the 1930s, petroleum engineering and technology also became an important field of study at the institute. In 1946, New Mexico Tech began offering graduate degrees. The institute adopted its current name in 1951, but the change was not legally effective until 1960, when its name was changed by an amendment of the New Mexico State Constitution, Art.XII, Section 11.[5]

Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO), managed by New Mexico Tech's Office of Research and Economic Development, is located 20 miles west of campus at an elevation of 10,500' in the Cibola National Forest.

The Very Large Array (VLA): a 27-dish interferometer 60 miles west of Socorro with headquarters on the New Mexico Tech campus

The Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Program for Array Studies of the Continental Lithosphere (IRIS PASSCAL) Instrument Center, located on the New Mexico Tech campus.

A view of Weir Hall (left) and the Library/Media Center (right) in the heart of campus.

NMT hosts an annual Performing Arts Series that is free to students, and, along with the broader Socorro community, city, and county, supports a great number of special events each year. New Mexico Tech is located approximately an hour south of Albuquerque in a region of high deserts to subalpine mountains that offers considerable outdoor recreation opportunities, including rock climbing, road and mountain biking, a triathlon, and hiking opportunities.[7][8] New Mexico Tech also hosts numerous active student clubs, a Part 15 AM radio station, and a biweekly student newspaper, Paydirt. The campus also includes an 18-hole championship golf course.

The campus population has historically been predominantly male, but it has moved increasingly towards a balance between the sexes,[9] with women now equal with men in most majors. The recently admitted class of 2017 has an overall male to female ratio of 2.69:1, but this ratio is highly variable between departments.